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Pretty sure it's just needs of the Army. A lot of guys just came down on PCS orders for Benning because the school houses there are understaffed. BN can have some effect but that seems to be reserved solely for PSG and above and if branch is trying to do something detrimental to that NCO's career. Like branch trying to send a brand new E7 to be an instructor somewhere instead of letting him get PSG time.
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Mar 4, 2017 22:18
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BLC classes are also packed, I have several promotable specialists that have been trying to get in for months. It's all they need to get promoted. Either there's a poo poo ton of promotable specialists or units are just sending every specialist they have, and if that's the case it's bullshit that the promotable ones aren't priority for slots.
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Mar 6, 2017 05:44
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I'd understand SSG (P) if the guy has been a PSG for a long time as a SSG. Anyway, I bought a good plate carrier for 50% off and god drat was that a good purchase considering how often I'm wearing one. Weight difference from an IOTV is huge plus it's way easier to move in and around a stryker with a plate carrier.
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Mar 7, 2017 02:03
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We can't just buy any plate carrier, and it was a sale going on at Tactical Tailor
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Mar 7, 2017 02:49
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Yeah that's the alternate route that I myself might be taking. The convoys that left today originally were planning on taking the southern route instead due to weather but Snoqualmie pass was opened to oversize vehicles later in the day so they took that one instead. It's going to suck either way. Do you guys have the new double v hull strykers? They seem to hold up better than the old strykers that I'm pretty sure were from the initial fielding of strykers in the Army.
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Mar 7, 2017 03:01
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A Bad Poster posted:Yeah, we have the new strykers. I don't know what the difference is between them and the older versions. Hopefully not something to do with reliability, because then I can't imagine how bad they were before. The old ones I'm pretty sure were from the Army's initial stryker fielding and had sat in the motorpool doing nothing through multiple deployments. I know my unit's strykers had a lot of water damage when they got back late 2013/early 2014 from Afghanistan. We've only done one YTC rotation since having the new ones and they definitely hold up better than the old ones did on the way to YTC. It doesn't help that mechanics are only just now learning how to fix strykers since the General Dynamics contract meant that it was GD almost exclusively working on strykers until relatively recently, at least from what I understand anyway.
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Mar 7, 2017 03:30
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VCing a Stryker through Snoqualmie pass while having snow dumped on top of you is not a very pleasant experience
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Mar 8, 2017 05:01
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I'm Cav, I VC my own Stryker as do my section leaders and PSG
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Mar 8, 2017 05:25
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A qualified crew for strykers is actually just driver and gunner. Regardless of whether you're cav, infantry, artillery or whatever the VC is the ranking soldier on that Stryker, doesn't matter if you dismount or not. Manning is pretty lovely, we're really under strength. We're supposed to be 36 scouts but I only have 21 I can take to the field.
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Mar 8, 2017 18:45
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A Bad Poster posted:Mustang, we should meet up for drinks sometime when you get back. I'd love to get your side of that inevitable cluster gently caress compared to my sides. I'm down to do that, I get back in April.... and leave 2 weeks later for a week and a half long stint back in Yakima.
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Mar 8, 2017 18:48
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I'm well aware I'm in the war crimes BDE, that PLT was actually attached to one of our companies when it happened. My BN was actually pretty lovely and toxic until relatively recently. The BDE and the Army itself still requires us to do plenty of stupid poo poo despite having a good command climate. My commander and 1SG are awesome, as are the NCOs in my Platoon. I only have one troublesome soldier and even then I've never been called in the middle of the night or on the weekend for anything. Things are pretty good and living in WA is awesome.
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Mar 11, 2017 18:31
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God drat Yakima Training Center
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Mar 19, 2017 21:41
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I've been to YTC before but never with the whole BDE and for a month straight. So dumb and lame. I never said that the Army wasn't dumb or that Army stupidity didn't effect me, just that my immediate superiors are good people with a good command climate which makes life significantly easier than it could be.
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Mar 20, 2017 02:16
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Nope YTC range control is usually really easy to get along with. It's JBLM range control that is full of assholes
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Mar 20, 2017 04:11
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Both at Benning and JBLM civilians working on post have always been a huge pain in the dick to deal with. Well, except for the dudes working in Physical Security on JBLM. Civilians on Yakima are really easy to work with which is kind of surprising considering how much stupid poo poo happens here, especially with an entire BDE here. These guys will go out of their way to help you out as long as you treat them well. Some of the targetry operators will even pick up stuff off post for you and your guys, sometimes they won't even let you pay them for it.
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Mar 20, 2017 18:43
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I cleared CIF two different times at Benning and never had any issues so I never really got the hatred for CIF
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Mar 20, 2017 20:14
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Forward support companies are the most useless motherfuckers
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Mar 21, 2017 13:16
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So much Stryker recovery training....and some funny stories
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Mar 24, 2017 00:58
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A Bad Poster posted:Guess who is now also in Yakima Plenty of fun here for everyone
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Mar 25, 2017 04:16
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Eastern and Northern Yakima is pretty country during the spring. Off road maneuver at night with almost no illum in a Stryker is loving terrifying though
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Mar 25, 2017 05:59
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I have the best driver in the Platoon and even during the day I have him turn the DVE on so I can see where we're going if I'm duck down for whatever reason. The DVE is great but you can't always see holes and ditches etc through them.
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Mar 25, 2017 06:34
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cravius posted:Mustang there's some dudes from your brigade in my ARC class and holy poo poo 2nd BDE?
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Mar 27, 2017 15:22
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So our Yakima sentence is almost complete. A week after we get back command teams get to come back out for a week to be OCs and then a week after they come back from that we go out for Yakima 2. When we get back out from that the command teams go to NTC for LTP which is in turn followed by Yakima 3. They're understandably butt hurt. I Corps/7th ID has some of the dumbest planning. High Op tempo in one of the best parts of the country and they wonder why retention rates are so low. My BDE has the lowest LT retention rate in the Army. Supposedly the new BDE commander and CSM want to give the BDE a break after NTC but I'll believe that when it happens.
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Mar 29, 2017 19:46
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The more I learn, the less I understand
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Mar 30, 2017 03:33
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Being a PL is still a lot of fun and I love my Platoon, it's all the poo poo that happens way above me that's frustrating. I've never been called in on the weekends or the middle of the night over anything one of my guys has done. I'll save the stories until I no longer have this job or tell them in person
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Mar 30, 2017 03:50
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Because the XO and S3 does all your work for you?
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Mar 30, 2017 03:52
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Interesting, I didn't know we had sent anyone to ARC lately. He's definitely not in my Troop. I'm guessing A. I guess it's possible the weapons Troop sent someone since the MGS's are manned by 19Ds now. Mustang fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Mar 30, 2017 23:45
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I don't understand the point of strykers. You can fart in the wrong direction in these things and they'll be deadlined. Doesn't help that an SBCT has the maintenance support of a IBCT while it needs support more like an ABCT. I want to trade in my strykers for humvees.
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Apr 3, 2017 13:52
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In an urban environment or anywhere I'd have to worry about IEDs I'd definitely want a Stryker. Right now SBCTs, or at least mine anyway, are training to fight Russian equipped armor units. BTR80s have twice the max effective range of either a mk19 or a M2. The double V hulls also weigh a lot more than the old flat bottom versions so they sink into the ground at Yakima just about everywhere. Scouts are now using the infantry variant because there is no recon variant of the double v hull strykers. This means we use RWSs now instead of having a gunner in a turret with an LRAS3. The LRAS3 mount is now in the back and used from the air guard hatch which means you need to move the Stryker because of the limited field of view and it's no longer on a turret. With an RWS we're more accurate with our weapon systems but the gunner now has a much reduced situational awareness.
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Apr 3, 2017 18:58
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Well, young in Army years but I'm pretty old for a LT. I'm the same age as my squad leaders and only a couple years younger than my PSG.
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Apr 3, 2017 19:09
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Yeah RWSs are pieces of poo poo, things break down way to easy all on their own. I wish we could use the RVs still but we turned all of those in for the ICVs we're currently using.
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Apr 3, 2017 19:29
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A Bad Poster posted:About those drinks I mentioned... I'm down to meet up with any of PNW dudes sometime. It's great being back in Civilization. Fortunately there's still 2 more trips to Yakima in the next 3 months...
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Apr 4, 2017 03:50
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Guess who gets to go back out to Yakima to be an OC for some other units training
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Apr 5, 2017 02:26
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My commander didn't just pull this task out of his rear end, everyone PSG and above is going, plus a squad leader from each platoon. There also aren't any "fresh" LT's to take the spot anyway, none stayed back. It's my third YTC rotation in less than a year and I'm about to head out for a 4th rotation almost immediately after this OC thing. And then a 5th time in June. This past month was just the first time I had been there for a month straight. Somehow 4 weeks feels 1000 time worse than 3 weeks. It was also the first time I had been there while the rest of the BDE was as well. I also don't think I'm some badass or the best PL the Army has ever seen, I'm just trying to be good at my job and try to make things not suck as much for the guys in my platoon. I also don't give a single gently caress about getting any medals.
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Apr 5, 2017 03:00
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Hillary Clintons Thong posted:edit: also no one tell him that they send the people they don't like to those kind of details (because you're not in the CO's cool guy club) Every line CO command team and PL/PSG is going
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Apr 5, 2017 03:01
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No mechanics in the platoon, there's a support company. Strykers run just fine and don't break down often when you keep them on roads but as soon as you start taking them offroad they start having all sorts of issues, the T case and generators being the most common problems. Because of the contract with GD mechanics are really only just now learning how to work on strykers so there isn't any institutional knowledge for how to maintain them. Most of the mechanics don't even know how to operate the vehicles they're working on. For some reason they think SBCT's need to train to fight armored forces but I'm pretty sure we would get hosed up if that was ever the case. Hillary Clintons Thong posted:god drat thats actually pretty funny man It really sucks for the CO command teams because as soon as they're done with the next YTC rotation they get to go to NTC for like 2 weeks and then 3 weeks later get to go out to YTC #5. Pretty much everyone MAJ and below is really butt hurt about the BDEs training schedule
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Apr 5, 2017 03:34
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MGS's have the 105's and the tipping over thing is a myth. The problem with the MGS's is they're by far the most fault/deadline prone of the stryker variants. When they fielded the double v hull ones last year they all had an issue where they would immediately fire as soon as you loaded a round. AFAIK against an armored unit they would fire and then immediately displace because they don't have the armor to go toe to toe with tanks. The only AT capabilities of an SBCT are MGS's, ATGM (TOW) strykers and dismounts with javelins. For some reason they made MGS crews all 19D's now instead of 19K's so now you have crews that don't have any experience doing anything even remotely tank related. There's also no longer any MGS crews with deployment experience on MGS's. A stryker variant with a 25mm bushmaster were just fielded to 2CR, no idea how those are doing.
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Apr 5, 2017 03:43
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Obstacle2 posted:In Iraq people kept throwing RKG3 grenades at the MGS though because someone thought it was smart to patrol with them like you would in an ICV and no one could see poo poo because there arent enough hatches to stand out of. Yeah we always have people standing out of the hatches. One of the annoying things about having RWS's now is that gunners no longer have the situational awareness of standing up in a turret so you can't really rely on them to fight the vehicle when the VC dismounts. Scout platoons don't have enough personnel to have people solely dedicated to being VC's.
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Apr 5, 2017 04:00
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Naked Bear posted:lol Every time I go out into the field I have a copy of the Recon Handbook. Also the Recon PLT FM but I don't use it as much. Weirdly I'm the only person I've seen bring a copy of the Recon Handbook anywhere.
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Apr 5, 2017 05:01
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I'm not going anywhere but YTC and NTC. It could be WW3 and I'm pretty sure we'd still only be doing YTC and NTC rotations.
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Apr 7, 2017 06:29
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